Blog: Jinke Hesterman
Healthier living environment in livestock-dense areas
For a year and a half, many involved have worked hard to evaluate the laws and regulations that should prevent odor nuisance from livestock farms as much as possible. Unfortunately, the advice, which was issued to the State Secretary for I&M in October 2016, is still on her desk. It is not yet clear when it will go to the House of Representatives.
Paul Bodden has already taken note of it. He is a bit disappointed: in his opinion, the advice contains only a few suggestions, which have not or hardly been worked out. I share his criticism.
Clear story and clear standards
As a member of the max5odeur working group and participant in the evaluation, I would of course have liked more solid advice. Clear standards (preferably as low as possible) and a clear story are necessary in that advice. That clear story must address the need to assess the stench from one livestock farm not alone, but precisely in conjunction with the stench from other livestock farms, or in other words, cumulatively.
The following parts should also have been ready-made for me:
- The "50 percent rule" should be abolished.
- The stopper arrangement should leave no room for haggling.
- All odor sources on a farm must be included, including the spreading of manure.
- Best Available Techniques (BAT) should no longer be used as an excuse to keep more animals. This is because the so-called "filling up of standards" still leads to unacceptable odor nuisance in many places.
The stench of the Netherlands
We started the evaluation with a map of all stench areas in the Netherlands. That was a shock to many. The stench of the Netherlands turns dark red in large parts of Brabant, Limburg, Gelderland and in many places in Overijssel.
In March 2015, the odor report of GGD Brabant en Zeeland and the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) of the University of Utrecht was published. That report showed that the stench problem is much bigger and more serious than previously thought by many. Not only the excessively broad standards, but also exceeding them and overestimating the effect on air scrubbers have led to untenable situations.
Drastic reduction in odor standards
During the evaluation, representatives of the GGDs, environmental federations and citizen groups argued for a drastic reduction in odor standards. They were supported by scientific research. However, LTO, the municipalities and the provinces felt that this study did not provide a sufficient basis for a major policy change.
In the Environmental magazine of March 2017, Alderman Aart de Krijf of the municipality of Barneveld, and participant in the evaluation, commented on this. Stricter standards will deeply affect rural areas, he warns. 'That is not only rigorous for the agricultural sector. It also has significant consequences for the municipalities.'
By lowering the standards for the outside area from 14 to 5 Ou, odor contours from livestock farms shift over areas where the municipalities want to build. That is what De Krijff claims. 'I don't find it annoying at all to buy a company because of housing construction aspirations, but that has to be based on an objectively determined standard.'
Wider change process underway
Fortunately, such an evaluation does not stand alone. This is because a broader process of change is underway, in which step by step we are working towards a healthier living environment in livestock-dense areas. Paul Bodden also refers to this: various projects and studies are underway and he predicts that a fairly large change in the assessment framework is imminent. He may also be right about that.
A study into the efficiency of air scrubbers will have irrevocable consequences for the number of animals that can be kept with such systems. There are guidelines for municipalities in the making, one for scent and one for public health, which hopefully will be enshrined in the law.
These are all developments from which citizens can at least derive some hope for improvement.
Jinke Hesterman
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